1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to the commercialization of web services and in particular, to the commoditization of a web services portfolio by syndicating and normalizing multiple sources.
2. Background Information
A “web service” is a program or programs executing on one computer system whose functionality programs on other systems can invoke through some communications network, such as the Internet. Web services have become a popular means of integrating applications within an enterprise or between an enterprise and its business partners.
In addition, there are many examples of potential services that could be offered commercially by a third party. In such a case, an enterprise using commercial web services is a “subscriber” using the web services offered by a web service “provider”.
Adoption of commercial web services has been slow, however. One reason for this is that functionally equivalent web services offered by multiple providers are almost never technically equivalent. Thus, changing providers almost certainly requires technical reimplementation even though the business function of the service may be exactly the same. A second reason for slow adoption is that client software using web services can only be as reliable as the web services themselves. The enterprise can mitigate the reliability risk by using multiple providers, but doing so means the difficultly maintaining an increased number of business relationships.
These issues introduce substantial risk and cost to an enterprise desiring to adopt commercial web services as part of their information-technology infrastructure.